News shows go nose to nose at night

With Tom Brokaw’s exit from NBC’s “Nightly News” nearing, the ratings race between his program and ABC’s “World News Tonight” is heating up.

Last week, they finished in a virtual dead heat, according to Nielsen Media Research. “Nightly News” won the important May sweeps in total viewers, its 21st sweeps win out of the last 22. But ABC was crowing about a victory among viewers ages 25 to 54, for the first time since 1996.

Last week, the two broadcasts averaged 8.72 million viewers (6.1 rating, 13 share). The “CBS Evening News” had 6.8 million viewers (4.9, 11).

Fox rode the successful conclusion of “American Idol” to a victory in the prime-time ratings race. The talent show’s conclusion was seen by 28.8 million. Wednesday’s two-hour finale and Tuesday’s final performances finished one-two respectively, not only in total viewers but also among the 18- to 49-year-old viewers networks and advertisers crave, along with teens, older adults and pretty much every other demographic group.

Tuesday’s final showdown between the two finalists also helped Fox’s “24” attract more than 12 million viewers for its conclusion to finish in eighth place.

For the week, Fox averaged 11.5 million viewers and easily won among viewers ages 18 to 49. CBS had 9.6 million viewers, NBC had 7.3 million, ABC had 6.4 million, UPN had 2.8 million and the WB had 2.3 million.

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Prime-Time TV Rankings

Here are the rankings for national prime-time network television last week (May 24-30) as compiled by Nielsen Media Research. They are based on the average number of people who watched a program from start to finish. Nielsen estimates there are 272.04 million potential viewers in the U.S. age 2 and older. Viewership is listed in millions.

*--* Program Network Viewers 1 Ame FOX 28.84 ric an Ido l (We ) 2 American Idol (Tu) FOX 25.13 3 CSI: Miami CBS 21.30 4 Everybody Loves Ray CBS 18.33 5 Two & Half Men CBS 18.16

6 CSI CBS 14.86 7 Without a Trace CBS 12.46 8 24 FOX 12.31 9 Law & Order NBC 12.22 10 Still Standing CBS 12.14

11 “ACM Awards” CBS 11.59 12 “Super Millionaire” (Tue.) ABC 11.36 13 “Reversible Errors,” Part 2 CBS 10.96 14 Navy NCIS CBS 10.86 15 The Swan FOX 10.75

16 Yes, Dear CBS 10.41 17 “Super Millionaire” (We) ABC 9.94 18 According to Jim (9:30) ABC 9.84 19 Fear Factor NBC 9.79 20 According to Jim ABC 9.54 21 60 Minutes CBS 9.49 22 Cold Case CBS 9.40 23 Law & Order: Crim Int NBC 9.29 24 Law & Order: SVU NBC 9.18 25 Law & Order (We, 9) NBC 9.08

26 Primetime Thursday ABC 9.02 27 Crossing Jordan NBC 8.49 28 Fox NASCAR Nextel Cup FOX 8.39 29 Dateline NBC (Fri.) NBC 8.19 30 The Swan (8 p.m.) FOX 8.12

31 My Wife and Kids ABC 7.79 20/20 (Fri.) ABC 7.79 33 The Bachelor ABC 7.52 34 Dateline NBC (Tue.) NBC 7.48 35 America’s Most Wanted FOX 7.40

36 Law & Order: SVU (Mon.) NBC 7.21 37 “ABC Extreme Bloopers” ABC 7.10 38 “Coyote Ugly” ABC 7.08 Law & Order (Sa) NBC 7.08 40 Fear Factor (9) NBC 7.06

41 Cops (8:30 p.m.) FOX 6.90 42 Las Vegas (Fri.) NBC 6.86 43 Joan of Arcadia CBS 6.71 44 Will & Grace NBC 6.69 45 Law & Order (We., 10) NBC 6.64

46 Friends NBC 6.62 47 “Tomorrow Never Dies” CBS 6.38 48 “A Beautiful Mind” ABC 6.12 49 ER NBC 6.00 50 Dateline NBC (Sun.) NBC 5.79

51 George Lopez ABC 5.71 52 “Most Outrageous Game Mom 4” NBC 5.52 53 “Line of Fire” ABC 5.46 54 Extreme Makeover: Home ABC 5.44 Edition 55 Cops FOX 5.41

56 48 Hours Investigates CBS 5.24 57 Hope & Faith ABC 5.11 58 Scrubs NBC 4.91 59 JAG CBS 4.89 60 “America’s Sweethearts” FOX 4.82 61 Joan of Arcadia CBS 4.67 62 Married to the Kellys ABC 4.53 63 WWE Smackdown! UPN 4.37 64 America’s Funniest Home ABC 4.34 Videos 65 Life With Bonnie ABC 4.27

66 “Ali” CBS 4.11 67 “Someone Like You” FOX 4.08 68 7th Heaven WB 3.95 69 Enterprise UPN 3.91 70 “Restaurant” NBC 3.87

71 Girlfriends UPN 3.78 72 Eve UPN 3.53 73 “Restaurant” (8 p.m.) NBC 3.43 74 Reba WB 2.81 75 Superstar USA (Tue.) WB 2.73

“Ace Ventura: Pet Detective” WB 2.73 77 One on One (8:30 p.m.) UPN 2.54 78 Superstar USA (Mon.) WB 2.52 79 One on One UPN 2.48 80 What I Like About You WB 2.27

81 Grounded for Life WB 2.13 82 Grounded for Life (9:30) WB 1.98 83 Stanley Cup: Game 3 ABC 1.97 84 “The Object of My Affection” WB 1.96 85 Steve Harvey’s Big Time WB 1.82

86 Superstar USA (Sun.) WB 1.70 Rock Me Baby UPN 1.70 88 Rock Me Baby (9:30) UPN 1.52 89 Angel WB 1.50 90 Jamie Kennedy WB 1.48

91 “Cheating Death: The Eddie UPN 1.41 Guerrero Story” 92 “Repli-Kate” UPN 1.40 93 “Pepsi Smash” WB 1.16

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Network averages

Here is the number of viewers (in millions) that each network averaged per hour of prime time, for last week and for the season.

*--* Network Last week Season to date FOX 11.53 9.68

CBS 9.57 12.99

NBC 7.25 10.93

ABC 6.38 8.93

UPN 2.83 3.37

WB 2.25 3.61

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